The Holocene tephrostratigraphic record of Lake Shkodra (Albania and Montenegro)

Abstract

Two cores were recovered in the southeastern part of Lake Shkodra (Montenegro and Albania) and sampled for identification of tephra layers. The first core (SK13, 7.8mlong) was recovered from a water depth of 7m, while the second core (SK19, 5.8mlong) was recovered close to the presentday shoreline (water depth of 2 m). Magnetic susceptibility investigations show generally low values with some peaks that in some cases are related to tephra layers. Naked-eye inspection of the cores allowed the identification of four tephra layers in core SK13 and five tephra layers in core SK19. Major element analyses on glass shards and mineral phases allowed correlation of the tephra layers between the two cores, and their attribution to six different Holocene explosive eruptions of southern Italy volcanoes. Two tephra layers have under-saturated composition of glass shards (foiditic and phonolitic) and were correlated to the AD 472 and the Avellino (ca. 3.9 cal. ka BP) eruptions of Somma- Vesuvius. One tephra layer has benmoreitic composition and was correlated to the FL eruption of Mount Etna (ca. 3.4 cal. ka BP). The other three tephra layers have trachytic composition and were correlated to Astroni (ca. 4.2 cal. ka BP), Agnano Monte Spina (ca. 4.5 cal. ka BP) and Agnano Pomici Principali (ca. 12.3 cal. ka BP) eruptions of Campi Flegrei. The ages of tephra layers are in broad agreement with eight 14C accelerator mass spectrometric measurements carried out on plant remains and charcoal from the lake sediments at different depths along the two cores. The recognition of distal tephra layers from Italian volcanoes allowed the physical link of the Holocene archive of Lake Shkodra to other archives located in the central Mediterranean area and the Balkans (i.e. Lake Ohrid). Five of the recognised tephra layers were recognised for the first time in the Balkans area, and this has relevance for volcanic hazard assessment and for ash dispersal forecasting in case of renewed explosive activity from some of the southern Italy volcanoes

Aligning and synchronization of MIS5 proxy records from Lake Ohrid (FYROM) with independently dated Mediterranean archives: implications for DEEP core chronology

“…A detailed description of these tephra layers, as well as analytical procedures for their geochemical fingerprinting, can be found in Leicher et al (2016). Most of these tephras have already been described for other cores from Lake Ohrid and nearby Lake Prespa (Lezine et al, 2010;Wagner et al, 2008;Sulpizio et al, 2010a, b;Vogel et al, 2010;Damaschke et al, 2013). In Fig.…”

The last 7 millennia of vegetation and climate changes at Lago di Pergusa (central Sicily, Italy)

“…To avoid alkali loss, especially Na, a window spot was used (usually with side ca.10 µm). Performance of the instrument is extensively discussed elsewhere, especially in comparison with wave dispersion spectroscopy Cioni et al, 1997;Marianelli and Sbrana, 1998;Sulpizio et al, 2010;Vogel et al, 2009), indicating comparable performances on major elements, and will not be discussed further. To perfectly compare our data with those obtained by Sadori and Narcisi (2001), the tephra layer found in core PRG1 was resampled and re-analyzed.…”

Tephrostratigraphic studies on a sediment core from Lake Prespa in the Balkans

“…Although the geochemical correlation of PT0915-11 to the few described Etnean distal tephra deposits (e.g., Keller et al, 1978;Paterne et al, 1988Paterne et al, , 2008Wulf et al, 2004;Wagner et al, 2008;Sulpizio et al, 2009;) is obvious, its stratigraphic position between Y-6 and the ESR-dated shell layer (73 570 ± 7740 yr; Table 1) does not allow a chronological correlation with known distal deposits (Fig. 4j).…”

“…Only the climactic phase shows more mafic and less evolved composition, such as that found in PT0915-1. So far, distal deposits of the 472 AD eruption have been detected in the sediments of Lake Shkodra (SK19; Sulpizio et al, 2009), Sulmona Basin (SUL1-5; Giaccio et al, 2009) and Lago Grande di Monticchio (TM-2a and TM-2b; Wulf et al, 2004). When plotted in the TAS-diagram (Fig.…”

“…600-800 km downwind of most Italian volcanoes which were active during the Late Quaternary (e.g., Peccerillo, 2005). In addition, the Balkan Peninsula hosts several ancient lakes (i.e., Ohrid, Prespa, Dojran, Shkodra), which have been shown to be good archives for distal tephra deposits (e.g., Wagner et al, 2008;Sulpizio et al, 2009;Caron et al, 2010;Vogel et al, 2010).…”